“We can confirm now that Turkey has requested the extradition of Mr Gulen”.
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The website consists of five main sections titled: coup attempt, heroes, squares, reactions from the world, and wall of shame.
Gulen, who has lived in Pennsylvania for the past 17 years in self-imposed exile, has denied any connection to the coup attempt that claimed at least 270 lives. Although Turkey has submitted extradition requests for Gulen, those requests have been based on previous alleged crimes by Gulen and not evidence of involvement in the coup attempt, senior Obama administration officials said.
“We have received a formal extradition request, just not one pertaining to the coup attempt”, the spokesman said, declining to specify further.
USA officials earlier said they were reviewing documents submitted by Turkey but were not able to say they constituted an extradition request. Toner said Tuesday the decision to accept the request formally was made “in the past several days”.
The matter is likely to come up when US Vice President Joe Biden travels to Ankara for an official trip on Wednesday. Turkey and the USA are party to a 1979 extradition treaty.
A separate delegation from the USA arrived in Turkey on Monday to discuss the extradition of Gulen and it is unclear whether Biden would also be holding talks on the matter.
In another worrying sign for the U.S., Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim appeared to warm to the possibility of Syrian President Bashar Assad maintaining a role in a transitional government.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said the death toll as a result of the military coup attempt stood at 246 people, excluding the coup plotters, and over 2,000 people were wounded.
Some Turkish officials have alleged that the United States was involved in the unsuccessful uprising and has been insufficiently sympathetic to the subsequent arrest of tens of thousands of alleged coup backers in the military and across a wide spectrum of society.
Turkey’s Justice Ministry says its officials opened talks Tuesday with US Justice Department and State Department officials in the capital, Ankara.
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According to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency, which cited unnamed Turkish officials, Tuesday’s meeting was expected to involve officials from Turkey’s justice ministry sharing information from four files on Gülen.
